I’m running Windows XP, and I keep getting the little icon in the system tray that says my firewall is turned off. But it disappears immediately after it appears. When I go to check my firewall settings I see that it is turned on with no exemptions. This problem repeats every few minutes or so.
What could be the cause of this, and how do I fix it? For the record, I have virus protection and spyware/adware protection installed, and the scans don’t turn up anything. Also, I’m on a wireless network if that makes a difference.
And while I’m asking computer questions, my dad was saying that every few days or so his computers lose all internet connectivity, and it doesn’t come back until he un-plugs/re-plugs the modem and router. He has high-speed Internet from Comcast, and a Linksys wireless router. What might be causing this problem, and how could he permanently fix it (rather than having to keep resetting the modem)?
Which firewall are you using? If it’s 3rd party, it’s up to your firewall and virus software to report it’s own status to Windows; if it’s not doing that right, it might cause problems like that.
For your second issue, how is the PC connected: with a wire, or wireless?
Next time it drops, try repairing the network connection on the PC. If that doesn’t work, reset the router and then repair the connection. It depends on the PC stats, but it’s most likely the router flaking out. Feel free to have him phone Comcast when it goes down - they can try pinging your router, etc. to find out what’s up.
You can turn off the firewall warning by going to the Security Center applet in Control Panel and clicking the “Change the way Windows notifies me” link on the left side.
It’s the Windows XP firewall (i.e., the one I turn on by going to the Windows control panel.) However, I actually have a second firewall via my router (“Belkin wireless G router”). I have no idea if either is actually being turned off, or if Windows is just misreporting the firewall’s status. I assume the message refers to the Windows firewall. (Incidently, I didn’t have these problems before I installed the router and started using a wireless network – but that could just be coincidence. I also had to reformat my computer recently do to some screwed up settings – it’s working fine now, though, other than this one glitch.)
As far as my dad’s problem, he has a wireless router (i.e., his computers are on a wireless network emanating from the router). When I was there over Thanksgiving and trying to connect from my laptop, I lost the signal (same as my dad is experiencing on his two desktop computers.) I tried to have my PC repair its network connection, but it only worked when I actually reset the router.
Just had this identical problem myself a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I do not recall specifics, such as file names. I can tell you what I looked for, and ultimately what I did.
In my case, a service had installed itself (or been installed by me or my kid) on my PC that would start upon windows startup. It would create a batch file that would be executed that would, quite simply, turn Windows Firewall off. I realized fairly early on (since I always turned Firewall on when informed that it was off) that some other agent was turning it off. I searched for all of the batch (*.bat) files on my computer and identified the file that was turning it off. I then deleted that batch file. I then checked all of the Services that XP started and found a likely candidate (it did not have one of the normal windows-y type names such as SVCHOST.exe or CRT.exe, my faulty memory thinks it started with an X, but I grew up in the disco era). Then I modified my startup to only start selected services and I made sure that my candidate was not going to be started. When I was finally able to restart my PC and the Firewall stayed on, I knew I had found the right service (not that the service kept creating the batch file so I had to keep deleting it). I was then able to delete the file and registry entries that pertained to that file and my problem went away.
All of these steps are covered fairly completely on the various ‘how to disinfect your PC’ sites out there on the web. Oh, in my case, McAfee would find the virus in the batch file and delete the batch file, but the service would just keep creating the batch files.